Phone number in Adsense Ad Text?

Is that allowed?

[wizarddave]

I just saw an ad on one of my high earning sites that included a phone number in the ad text. Is that allowed? Doesn't that, like, screw us out of clicks? (It's not a CPM ad, it was in 498x60 with another ad with the "Ads by Goooooogle" legend.)

Should I report this to G?

[Tropical Island]

As I understand it it is allowed by AdWords.

[turbo996]

In June, I emailed AdSense about this very same situation. Their response to my email didn't state if it was an AdWords violation or not, but they did say that it would be referred to the AdWords team for a TOS violation investigation. I never heard back from Google and the Ad with the phone number remained active for several weeks.

[wizarddave]

But! But! If it is allowed, or simply tolerated by G, does that make any sense? Aren't we losing clicks to people who pick up the phone instead?

[JayC]

I've used phone numbers in ad text plenty of times and have never been flagged by the AdWords cops for them. I haven't found any reference to the topic in the editorial guidelines.

[jbgilbert]

Interesting... I was specifically called on the rug by Google AdWords for using a telephone number a good while back.

So what the heck is the policy Google?

[NoLimits]

I block ads that show phone numbers.

They've been plaguing my site for some time.

[ShunT]

How many people would really call a random number after seeing a 5-10 word ad online? None ... and Google understands that.